Confessions of an iPhone Data Hog

[Commentary] AT&T sent Plank an e-mail warning that she is in the top 5% of the carrier's heaviest data users. How did I get to this digital penalty box? In 2010, AT&T announced new tiered data plans, with prices escalating based on the amount of a customer's monthly data use. In July, it warned that data hogs might suffer network slowdowns. I stuck with the $30 a month unlimited plan, figuring I wouldn't be one of them. I was wrong. I had been using my iPhone for nearly four years, doing nearly the same things every day—checking email, listening to Pandora Internet radio, using Google Maps, browsing the Web at night and shopping online. I averaged about 1.76 gigabytes of data per month in 2011. That changed this month.